2020-10-26 17:00:14Emerald was just a young girl when she had first heard about the Fraction System.
The concept of Numerators and Denominators never really stood out for the young girl, the information surrounding the topic whizzing over her head when her parents tried to teach her about it. And while she learned that Numerators were like the best heroes of the Empire, Denominators were apparently the worst people to ever grace the Empire.Some family members talked about rumors regarding the 'Dirt Eaters' as they called it. They were the scum of the earth, they said, and that they were too selfish and lazy that they allowed their previous Emperor and war hero to die due to not making his armor and weapons as strong as they should've been. As a child, she never paid too much attention to these things; content in living a modest life learning how to read and write in preparation for taking over the family business.Unfortunately, on the day of her sixteenth birthday,
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The Least Common Denominator The State of Affairs I
It has probably been a week since we escaped from our precarious position. Leaving the bodies of our fallen enemies behind us, we, as a group, pressed forward towards the nearest Decimal station situated near the exit of the Furnace. Miraculously, I was correct in saying that the army we slaughtered was practically the main brunt of the workforce stationed here. So, once we managed to set ourselves up across the rest of the Furnace, we essentially had the whole place to ourselves.The whole industrial might of an Imperial Furnace. Now that was something that was scary to think about if you're trying to put down a rebellion. I knew for a fact that It's been far too long since we commandeered the place. The Empire should be mobilizing right about now, probably just waiting for the go signal before swarming in through those gigantic wooden doors separating us from the outside world. Not that we were complace
The Least Common Denominator XII.I Inverse Proportionality
"Sis!"Olivia's jarring call for my attention shook me out of my reverie. I didn't remember why, but I feel like I was forgetting something again. it wouldn't be the first-"Crimson!" "Crimson!" "Crimson!"-time...My eyes widened as I realized just what was happening. I was standing in front of over five hundred of my fellow Denominators, all holding their own rifle in their arms as they all laid their eyes on my conscious form. W-what was I doing?*We will make it out of here alive.*That voice... Backus... It sounded... amplified?*Crimson has a plan to get us out of here!*Another one, this time sounding like... Olivia? What was happening?*It won't be the first time
The Least Common Denominator XII.II Inverse Proportionality
After a few minutes of awkwardly walking like I had a cucumber stuck in between my legs, Olivia and I finally found ourselves in front of one of the two gigantic doors leading outside the Furnace. Behind us, a ragtag group of over five-hundred-strong Denominators assumed their positions and waited for my next orders."Give me a sit-rep.""All five hundred and thirty-six Denominators are ready and awaiting your plans, young Crimson," Backus calmly replied. "The guards weren't able to see beyond these doors, but they said that the noise sounded as if there were a considerable number of enemies present on the other side."Welp... That had bad news written all over the place.I nodded at the relatively old information relayed to me by the elder. Not that I didn't appreciate it, but we already knew what laid behind the other
The Least Common Denominator XII.III Inverse Proportionality
I didn't even know if from which side of the battle started the carnage."CHARGE!"With but a single word, I felt our forces start colliding against each other. Metal and shrapnel pinged off the metal armors as our slapped-together units did their jobs as intended. Granted, the Decimals this time had shields with them, but our rifles were still capable of punching through them easy-peasy. The lethality might be reduced, but judging from the sounds of slaughter coming from below, I'd hazard a guess that they're still effective enough to be the trump cards for this battle.*BANG! BANG! PING!*But enough about that. I want to kill the fucker that killed the only pair of parents that I truly loved!"Sis?!"I didn't even hear my sister call out to me as I willed my legs forward; tunnel vision forming in my peripherals as I hacked and slashed my way towards my target. Shields were ineffectual if you knew what you were doing
The Least Common Denominator XII.IV Inverse Proportionality
Shit!*CRACK!*Dodging to my left, I felt my sweat drip as my previous position suddenly turned into glowing hot glass from the heat of the electricity. Like that night, ozone started permeating the air as I frantically looked for where the bastard might strike next. I knew that he can turn into lightning somehow... Maybe he was above me? Dividends were assassins after all- My nose perked up at the smell...Stop... Ozone...Behind me!*KRAKATHOOM!*A flash of of lightning casted a shadow in front of me as I quickly moved my arm-*CLANG!*"Ngggghhh!!"My right arm barely made it to block as remnants of the Prime's electricity traveled from his dagger all the way up to my shoulde
The Least Common Denominator XII.V Inverse Proportionality
I grunted in pain for every second that I continued to fall down the stone stairwell. I knew that my sanity couldn't take much more pain than this, but I had to keep going unless I wanted to die like a piece of KFC chicken on a Sunday afternoon. Besides, I still had enough spite left in me to help me chug along through this fucking pain.Thank God I actually managed to convert from using despair as an energy source to spite during my last few years of existence in the old world."Nggghhh..."I felt my teeth clatter as my bones vibrated with each collision that my body made with the cold, hard stone. It sucked, but every stair step that rocked me and borderline gave me a concussion, the closer I got to retrieving my katana. And possibly, another shot at trying to save my overextending ass from certain death."I think I can see now why Sister chose you," the Prime commented from a ways above my body. "You're pretty driven for such a hopeless
The Least Common Denominator XII.VI Inverse Proportionality
Shit! Me and my big mouth!*CRACK!*I shielded my eyes as a streak of lightning flashed dangerously close to my face, visibly grazing my fringes as I limboed under the noticeably thicker bolt of blue lightning than before. I didn't even know that lightning can get fatter if you added more energy into it!"Mother said that I was the best! So Sister is automatically inferior!"*CRACK! CRACK!*Two more bolts of lightning erupted from the golden boy's dagger.Oh fuck!I managed to dodge the first bolt of lightning-Shit!*ZZZZZAAAPPP!*"AARRARARGHGH!!"My body shook in unbridled pain as I failed to get out of the way of the second bolt, my katana visibly drinking in the full brunt of the electric shock. The blade crackled with energy as I tried desperately to stay upright despite the pain."That's what you get! Nobody messes with me!"I don't car
The Least Common Denominator XII.VII Inverse Proportionality
It came as no surprise to me when I realized that I was gay. Well, technically lesbian, but semantics can go either way."That bitch! Spitting on our Mother's teachings even now!"I was probably fourteen when I realized that I constantly kept ogling my best friend and my other classmates when we changed clothes for P.E. class. Granted, no one knew that back then, but it was still a secret shame that I hold on to till today."You heretic! Not only are you a Dirt Eater, but you're a blasphemer as well!" the homophobic Prime screamed at the top of his boyish lungs. "You tainted my lazy Sister with your blasphemic ways!"I fought the urge to scoff at the inane accusation. On top of 'blasphemic' not even being a proper word, I wasn't even the one that initiated contact with the blue-bitch. She was the true blasphemer, not me since I never even had the chance to find a fellow lesbian in this world ever since I got here.Not to mention
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CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat
